Buy Dark Souls™ II Crown of the Sunken King

Buy DARK SOULS™ II - Season Pass

About This Content

Embark on a journey to reclaim a crown that Drangleic’s King Vendrick once owned. This perilous quest will lead you through an entirely different world within the DARK SOULS™ II universe, where stepped pyramids span a vast underground cavern. It is said that one of the ancient crowns lay buried deep within these dark caverns; but surely such a valued item cannot sit unguarded. Explore in search of a crown that holds the strength of lords from times long past.

Coming from someone who has played all the DLCs, Sunken King is the most lackluster in my opinion. However, it's still fun, in a dark and creepy sort of way. The underground temple and environmental traps make you feel like a marauding archaeologist.

The weakness of the Sunken King DLC is that the area just isn't as compelling as the others. It's set in a dank underground area, and doesn't engender the same sense of awe as the other DLC's settings.

In addition, the bosses for the area are rather straightforward. The only gimmicks are the fact that the environment can move around (e.g. rotate, rise up and down) and many puzzles are centered around that.

The very final boss of the area is a nice surprise, though.

Pros:- Environment puzzles- Contains Denial miracle, which prevents you from dying once (similar to Second Chance from Demons Souls, but leaves you with 1 HP)- Grinding spot for infinite Twinkling Titanite/Dragon Bones

The Devs decided the main game was way to easy. So they added two bosses with restistance to everything. I am on new game plus. I haven't had much of an issue with the main game bosses. I thought i could take these guys. I was so so sorely mistaken.

Chances are, if you're reading this review, you already know what Crown of the Sunken King is, and you're mearly looking for justification to spend 10$ on it. (Or buy the Season pass) As such, I'll list the positives and negatives as directly as possible and not spend time faffing about writing about my "Personal Journey" and other such rubbish. I'll stop wasting your time and get directly to the good stuff in 3....2.....1

For clarencies sake, I'm going to split pros and cons into 3 categories, "Location", which lists good and bad things about the local habitat, flora, and fauna as well as the quality of the story told in the area. "New Content", which lists specifics about the quality of loot and new ideas as well as the likelyhood of a return visit to farm rare items. And finally "Bosses" in which I'll give a brief opinion on the overall quality of (my favorite part of any Dark Souls game) the Bosses.Be warned of minor spoilers, including (but not limited to) passing references to unique item effects, gameplay mechanics, and general difficulty.

LocationSet underground in a massive cavern not unlike the New Londo Ruins from Dark Souls I (which also happens to be a vast underground city changed by a terrible calamity years ago...) Crown of the Sunken King will see you traipse through city ruins filled with mysterious obelisks that alter the battlefield around you, across subterrenean pools crawling with evolutionary rejects, and through claustrophobic catacombs crawling with hidden levers and traps, all while throwing new and improved enemies at you. As story goes, while it's not immediately obvious what happened in Shulva (the city) competant players should be able to pick up the story via the ancient art of reading the post-it notes you find stuck to every-thing you pick up. Fairly good yarn, but nothing to write home about and it bears no connection to the rest of the plot as far as I can tell.

Pros: Good enemy diversityBattlefield can often work for or against you in unexpected waysEnemies behave in strange ways, your own knowlage may trip you upVery large area, can look at the area and trace your path of progress through it, like in DS1.Compelling Backstory about *spoilerz*

Cons: While most enemies look and behave differently, most of them use poison....people unable to think outside the box will get poo'd on in a couple places, (but serve them right, this should really be a pro!)The return of the hated statues from Black Gulch.Story doesn't tie in to the rest of Dark Souls IIStory is a bit on the obvious sideOne area is an incredibly stupid mix of The Gutter and...and.... a long linear passageway?

____________________________________________________________________

New Content Crown of the Sunken King has quite a few things worth looting (and something even better worth coming back to!) including (but not limited to) New toys Hexers can use to piss people off with! Finally an enemy that drops Petrified Dragon bones and respawns! The Magical Magnetic sword of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥! More Hexer Toys wheeeeee! Poison augmenting gear!*Ahem* serious now.apart from the new things listed abovr there are some ideas that, while not exactly new, havn't been seen since DS1, such as enemies that can't be arrow spammed, Sen's Fortress-esque traps, and the old "destroy the immortality catalyst" gag that's so fun at parties.

Pros:New enemies means a host of new ways to kill them :3New Dark based weaponsSpear that acts like Donatello's Bo when two-handedMy bow finally got some restRecycled ideas that are actually good

Cons:Recycled ideas :INew things for Hexers to piss me off with in PvPonly 2 or 3 enemies "TRULY" unique to this DLC

BossesIf your anything like me you just skipped to this section because no matter how bad the rest of the DLC is, it's all forgivable as long as the bosses are alright (also you mentally corrected my "your" to "you're" and mentally marked me down for bad grammer)well... to the end of bosses... I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that all 3 of the new bosses are challenging, the bad news is that despite this, (assuming you played DS1) we've seen something like all the bosses in this DLC. One from Dark Souls 1 one from Dark Souls 2 and one from your personal nightmeres about invaders. Fortunately, one of the bosses is optional, which is good because it's annoying as well as dissapointing. Unfortunately another one of the bosses commits two cardinal sins by being both unorigional and also summoning minions, an act that forever earns my ire because it means the devs couldn't be asked to make a harder boss. Fortunately the boss at the end makes it all worthwhile, a great culmination to a pretty good piece of DLC.

Pros: Very Difficult, but do not require Co-opFinal Boss is amazingSecond boss (not the optional one) ripe with conspiriciesLoot obtained from bosses is excellentWorst boss in completally optionalMusic is, as always, excellent

Cons:Two of the Bosses are copies of enemies from previous areas with new attacksOne of the bosses is a cheap ***** and summons minions constantlyAll of the bosses have a status ailment tied to them

Overall it's a solid piece of DLC and you'll definately get your money's worth out of it. If (like me) you get Dark Souls craving in the same way other people get drug cravings, you won't be (very) disapointed. :3Praise the sun y'all \[T]/

Crown of the Sunken King is the first DLC for Dark Souls II, and probably the worst one. It's still awesome, though!

The enemies are... not bad. Good, actually. Some things felt a bit cheap though (damage output, invulnerability...) but overall, I enjoyed fighting most of them.Bosses... well... There are three bosses. One bossfight is just silly, the other one is... well, kinda good. Then there's one which is really good, but too frustrating for me, haven't beat it yet...Looties are good. Return of the TWoP, Whip-Sword, cool armors...

So, is it worth it? Well, if it would be for this, probably not, but......this DLC has the best level design I ever saw, both visually and gameplay wise. I'm sure I still haven't discovered all the treasures... Also, while other DLCs somehow lack in NPCs, in CotSK it feels great. You really have that feeling from discovering long lost city... And yes, I felt like Indiana Jones.It's just awesome.

Alone, CotSK cannot match Artorias of the Abyss DLC. Together the DLCs can. They're not free, but, even if you thing DkS 1 was better than two, if you enjoyed DkS 2, you need to buy this.

(TLDR? This review is also available in video format below for your convenience.)

In typical Dark Souls fashion, its latest DLC, Crown of the Sunken King cannot be accessed until roughly half way through the game. The first of three planned DLC packs has you venturing to recover an ancient crown that was lost deep underground.

It's accessed from Black Gulch and you're greeted with three more sinister areas which add another 4 or 5 hours of challenging content.

The areas are large, sprawling and interconnected which do well to mask the linearity, allowing you to explore in a multitude of directions. There's tons of clever shortcuts that lead back to previous areas as well as plenty of hidden items and secrets. The areas also feature a ton of verticality, making it feel a lot more like the first Dark Souls game.

Special switches have been added to the areas which can be attacked to raise or lower platforms as well as open secret areas. Activating these are a bit of a puzzle and can have a pretty major effect on the environment which is a great addition.

Unfortunately the art direction for these zones is a bit uninspired, borrowing heavily from a lot of previous areas. I was immediately reminded of areas like The Lost Bastille as well as the Oolacile Township from the Artorias of the Abyss DLC from the first Dark Souls. It's all kind of dark, gritty, and indoors. Some added variety between the areas would have been welcomed opposed to more of the same.

The enemies that inhabit the DLC are as dangerous as you'd expect. From ghost like knights that are extremely difficult to kill until you destroy their bodies, to annoying archers, casters, insects and more horrifying monstrosities, there's no shortage of formidable enemies in Crown of the Sunken King. Swarming enemies are a larger threat than ever and status ailments like poison and corrosive damage are rampant.

The boss fights are very difficult as well as each of them are on-par with some of the hardest bosses out of any Souls game. They require planning and quick reflexes to overcome and will surely test even the most hardened Souls veterans.

Ultimately, Crown of the Sunken King is worth playing if you're a fan of the series and looking for new content. It doesn't add quite as much variety and content as Artorias of the Abyss added to Dark Souls 1 but with two more DLC packs planned, I can't wait to see what other challenges From Software adds next.

"Oooh, that is gorgeous.""Looks quiet. Too quiet."..."Ah the old 'Hollow plays dead' trick. Ha!""Oh f**k, that hurts! Kill it with lightning!""Where the f**k are they coming from?!" *dies*"Why the f**k is my gear broken?!" *dies*"Finally, a shortcut!"..."Oh f**k, ghosts!""Oh f**k, I can barely damage them"*dies*"Ooooh, so that's how you kill them.""Bonfire! Neat!"..."Many bloodstains here ...""Dark Phantom has invaded""Hey ... I remember you ... OH F**K!" *gets ra*ed by multiple Forbidden Suns* *dies**dies**dies*"Jesus, how much HP does this smug c**t have?!""Dark Phantom banished""Praise the ... oh f**k, T-Rex!" *dies*"Why the f**k am I doing so little damage with Sun Spear?!""Holy f**k, so many of them!" *dies*"Why is there a bonfire in the middle of them!?""Sweet mother of Sunny-D, another shortcut! Hurrah!"..."Lone hollow, smells fishy.""Oh, f**k, what is with that moveset?""Oh, f**k, PvP is easier!" *backstabbed* *dies*

And then it hit me ... this is the same feeling I got from Dark Souls 1. Explore, die, rinse and repeat until success. Clever area design, smart shortcuts to a previous bonfire, traps just waiting to make your life a living hell. Ahh, I love the smell of frustration in the evening.

Whereas the rest of Dark souls 2 is a fun, yet reasonably challenging experience, this DLC decides to take a different approach entirely. It focuses more on multiplayer, meaning that there will be more mobs of enemies and harder bosses to fight. This would be fine and dandy, except multiplayer in dark souls ♥♥♥♥ing sucks, and always will suck. This DLC does nothing to improve multiplayer either, so it's usually just going to be you and your wit, which can only get you so far.The vanilla game is built so that you as a player can use your own skill to traverse any obstacle given enough attepmts, multiplayer was always just sort of extra help, and that was something that drew me into the DS franchise in the first place. But this DLC capitalizes on it's most broken and worthless game mechanic. Either you wait a few hours to get one ♥♥♥♥ing summon sign, that will only last until you either die, or beat the area boss, or you can try to beat it on your own. Either way this DLC will ♥♥♥♥ the hell out of you in the worst possible way. It's unfair, it's focal point is stupid, and it only degrades the Dark souls experience. Stay away from this ♥♥♥♥, it's not worth the price tag. Check out the other DLC's though, they're actually worth your hard earned money.

As much as I love Dark Souls, this particular DLC is a big of a joke. Dark Souls prides itself with being difficult and the reason so many people keep coming back to this game is because completing a challenge feels so satisfying, however the content in this DLC is designed for more than 1 person. Groups of 2 or 3 are the optimal way to beat this content and From Software said they wanted to promote a multiplayer envirnoment.

I can't buy that excuse. If you wanted a multiplayer environment, why didn't you add a co-operative mode when you made the game? I feel like multiplayer was just a quick selling point you added through the special Gods ring you buy from the cat right before release. I don't like playing Dark Souls with other people except on rare occasions, why force me to play with others to complete content? It took me 5 hours just to get to the third bonfire because I had to keep pulling things away from a group to win fights, otherwise it was a 6v1 gangbang most of the time.

I honestly love Dark Souls and the other 2 DLC for it are amazing, but this one has got it's priorities all mixed up. Dark Souls is about accomplishing something for yourself. Beating a boss feels so good except in this DLC you need 2 people to stand anything of a chance.

I will say the game design for this DLC is quite nice but nothing particularly amazing compared to the vanilla game. There are some cool armour sets and interesting new spells to attain, and I don't mind the puzzle-like nature of the map. In saying that, I don't think I'll be completing this DLC purely because I hate the idea of having someone help me through it.

7/10, I would not recommend this DLC to anyone who, like me, enjoys completing challenges on your own. Spend your money on the other 2 DLC.